Outwardly, Liu Xing's face remained calm, as if facing an opponent he was confident he could defeat. Inwardly, though, he was freaking out. If he didn't control his body, his lungs would be gasping for air like a fish out of water, his body would tremble until his knees weakened, and he would collapse on the spot. The only organs he couldn't control were his heart and his brain. His heart was pumping blood so frantically that if it could talk, it would scream, and his brain, amidst the panic, was trying to find the best way to get the fuck out of this place, realizing that things were officially out of control!

Still, Liu Xing stood rooted in place. After all, it wasn't that he hadn't seen this coming. Hell, he had seen the giant put the meatball inside its mouth and swallow it whole. He had actually wanted to jump and knock the meatball from its mouth, but since Yang Suyin was doing his best to cut up Lihuo, there was no way Liu Xing would jump and leave Yang Suyin and Lihuo's body. And so, this was the current situation, where if it were some kind of match, Wei Yi had gotten a point when the giant swallowed the meatball, and Liu Xing and Yang Suyin had gotten a point by securing Lihuo's body.

Licking his lips, Liu Xing faced the giant eye controlled by Wei Yi, which had stopped its attack. There was one tongue that was still pulled out from the ground. This tentacle tongue was smaller than the others, and he suspected that it would have been the tentacle that would have launched a sneak attack on Yang Suyin had he not succeeded in storing Lihuo's body, and now that Yang Suyin had succeeded, he had pulled it out of the ground and aborted his plan.

Liu Xing tried to think what he needed to do right now, because while he had told Yang Suyin that they needed to survive, surviving alone wasn't enough. They needed to do something, but what was this something? It would be good if Liu Xing had unlimited power and could fight toe-to-toe with the giant, and then ultimately kill it, but there was no way in hell he could do that. He needed to do something that wasn't impossible, but still would allow him to win this battle.

For a moment, he thought to open his mouth and ask Wei Yi to negotiate. After all, if violence wasn't working, talking perhaps could be the solution. But ultimately, he chose to bite his tongue instead. There was no way in hell Wei Yi would negotiate. He was winning right now. And even if he did want to negotiate, Liu Xing's morals and vow wouldn't let him. This was an opponent that Liu Xing had chosen to kill no matter what happened, and he would stick to his choice.

Inside his consciousness, his core had now grown in size, and it was actually the size of a barrel, making his body able to produce a lot of qi. But even if he broke through to have a second core, the situation wouldn't change much.

The pale white giant, whose throat was bulging with the meatball, swallowed once more. He could see that the meatball was forcefully pushed down, the bulge traveling along his neck, and a moment later, a sound of "ah" came out from the giant's mouth, as if he had just tasted the most delicious meal in the world, and the bulge in his neck was no more. For a moment, nothing happened, but then, wind began swirling, slowly at first, then faster and faster until it almost looked like a tornado.

Wei Yi began cackling. The sound of it was almost like a hyena laughing, but so loud it felt like the one who was cackling was actually a mountain. His eyes crinkled in a crescent shape, while his mouth formed a wide smile.

Upon hearing Wei Yi laughing as well as seeing the giant eat the meatball, Liu Xing licked his lips. The swirling wind around the giant became stronger and stronger, and slowly but surely, he could feel that the qi around was being absorbed by it. From the look of it, either the giant was undergoing a breakthrough, or its body and qi were undergoing some kind of evolution, which would make the giant more dangerous. This giant needed to be dealt with right here and right now, and to do it, he needed a plan.

"Do you have any ideas?" Liu Xing asked Yang Suyin.

Yang Suyin's eyes, which had been locked in horror on the face of the white giant, snapped toward him. "C-can you repeat what you said?"

"Do you have any ideas?" Liu Xing repeated. "This thing is tough. I've actually attacked it several times, but none of the attacks have successfully wounded it."

Liu Xing was actually trying to conjure some ideas himself. Though, aside from his initial plan to target the weak point of the giant, he came up with nothing more. And since the yellow eye was controlled by Wei Yi right now, that particular weak point had become harder to attack.

"Ah, no, actually, yes, but—" Yang Suyin stammered for a moment, but before he could finish, Liu Xing saw from his peripheral vision that the former Elder Yang Zhaoyan crouched his body and propelled himself forward with the hundreds of pale arms on his sides.

Upon seeing this, Liu Xing instantly jumped toward the former Elder Yang Zhaoyan. While flying through the air, Liu Xing brandished his stone blade. The former elder opened his mouth so wide, it almost looked like his upper head was about to get torn off, and shot a black tongue at him that almost looked like a dry branch. At first, it was only one, then, in the middle of the attack, it split into two, then four, then eight, and so on, as if this tongue were a branching tree. Upon seeing this, Liu Xing slashed his blade and sent out a crescent of purple qi. The attack tore through the tongue branches like an axe cutting little branches from a dry tree.

Liu Xing himself summoned and kicked his shield to maneuver, launching himself into the sky. Then, he resummoned his shield to change his trajectory. He fell like a blue and purple comet downward, his stone blade pointing right toward the elder's head.

The elder snapped his face upward right before Liu Xing's stone blade could pierce it. So, instead of piercing the top of his head, Liu Xing's stone blade stabbed right into his forehead.

Elder Yang Zhaoyan's face had no expression, his yellow eyes also empty, and when the blade pierced through his forehead and came out of the back of his head, he didn't even flinch, while Liu Xing grimaced. How many times did he need to cut down Elder Yang Zhaoyan?

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Liu Xing slashed his stone blade to the side, cutting half the elder's face in two, and maneuvered around, beginning to cut the arms around his sides. Each of the arms tried to catch him, but there wasn't a single one that successfully grazed his body, let alone caught him.

In his peripheral vision, he could see Wei Yi gathering more red condensed balls of qi in front of his eye. There were hundreds of them, and instead of targeting Liu Xing, he actually targeted Yang Suyin and unleashed his attacks. He could see Yang Suyin turn himself into a yellow light and zigzag around, evading the attack while also moving toward him.

Upon seeing this, Liu Xing clenched his left hand, dismissed, and resummoned his gun into his hand. He then shot the side of the Elder Yang Zhaoyan with Exploding Fist bullets from point-blank range. When his bullets hit the flesh tree, it exploded and dragged the flesh tree turned centipede to the side, but only several meters later, it successfully stopped the momentum and lunged at him.

Instead of dealing with Elder Yang Zhaoyan, Liu Xing summoned his shield and kicked it, launching himself into the air. In the air, he slashed three times, each slash sending a crescent of purple qi toward Wei Yi. Upon seeing these attacks, Wei Yi looked toward the incoming crescents, and the red lasers shot his attacks, exploding them in mid-air.

"You need to regroup with the prince!" Liu Xing shouted. "Spread Lihuo's remains among your clansmen!"

"What about you?" Yang Suyin shouted back. Half of his body was still a yellow light.

"I'll try to do something!"

Before, Yang Suyin had been a great help in subduing Wei Yi, as well as helping him to secure Lihuo's body. But right now, it was too dangerous for them to move together, since they both had Lihuo's remains.

To make sure Wei Yi would have trouble getting Lihuo's body parts, they needed to move separately. Though, another reason they needed to separate was because Liu Xing actually didn't have the confidence to protect Yang Suyin right now.

"After spreading Lihuo's remains, I'll try to find out what the third ingredient is," Yang Suyin added.

"All right!" Liu Xing shouted while maneuvering in the air using his shield. Wei Yi was now splitting his attacks between him and Yang Suyin. And Elder Yang Zhaoyan was moving fast around the lasers, like a jaguar in the middle of the jungle, moving around and waiting for a chance to attack him.

"The answer is tortoise!"

Upon hearing Yang Suyin shout, Liu Xing blinked several times, almost getting hit by a laser because of it. "What?"

"Tortoise!"

Wei Yi merged several red balls of qi into one giant red ball. The air around it formed a whirlwind, and then, he shot this giant red laser between Liu Xing and Yang Suyin, separating them entirely.

When the laser hit the ground, it made the ground erupt outward.

Liu Xing kicked his shield to maneuver away from the laser. Looking behind, Liu Xing realized the giant laser was following him, tracing the ground and destroying it, making a cloud of dust swirl in the air. Upon seeing this, Liu Xing was actually grateful, since this meant Yang Suyin had a chance to run, and indeed, in his peripheral vision, he could see a yellow light zipping around near the ground, trying to sneak out of this place.

Right at this moment, the former Elder Yang Zhaoyan suddenly fell from the sky. His pale arms stretched out, some of them shrouded by blackness, and the elder opened his mouth.

Instantly, Liu Xing could feel the qi around him become more agitated, and without wasting even a moment, Liu Xing summoned his shield in front of him, rotated his body, kicked it, and flew in the opposite direction.

Turning his head, he could see a barrier had formed. But, before he could think about that barrier, several lasers came at him, which forced him to roll on the ground to the side.

While Liu Xing was dodging Wei Yi's attacks as well as Elder Yang Zhaoyan's, he had an idea to turn invisible again, but he decided that now wasn't a good time. Yang Suyin was still in his way, and it would be bad if Wei Yi and Elder Yang Zhaoyan turned to him. He needed to endure a bit more.

Liu Xing maneuvered in the sky while trying to make Wei Yi hit Elder Yang Zhaoyan with his laser, and while doing this, he thought about what Yang Suyin had told him.

Tortoise.

What the heck did he even mean? Was he referring to his turtle? Or something else? Why a tortoise? What was the significance of a tortoise in this current situation? Liu Xing knew for a fact that Yang Suyin wouldn't have told him without any meaning. And considering that he had asked Yang Suyin if he had any ideas, perhaps Yang Suyin's idea was about this tortoise? If so, then why did he even talk in this riddle? It would be easier if Yang Suyin told him directly what the answer was.

Sending a crescent of purple qi attack toward Wei Yi, Liu Xing licked his lips. Maybe, it was because the idea was a valuable one. One that could even win this fight. Nodding, he decided to believe his conjecture and try to rack his brain to find an answer.

As he moved around like a streak of lightning, bouncing around using his shield, with Wei Yi becoming increasingly frustrated by his sheer speed, Liu Xing thought about a tortoise. He imagined a tortoise and distilled the idea that it was slow and had a shell on its back that functioned as a defense mechanism. That shell was also tough, although enough force could crack it open.

Slow and tough.

Thinking about this, Liu Xing glanced at the pale white giant. He was slow and tough, so when Yang Suyin said tortoise, was he referring to this pale white giant? Was that it?

Shaking his head, Liu Xing thought there was no way that was the whole answer. While Yang Suyin was probably referring to the giant as a tortoise, there must be some hidden meaning to it. But what was it?

Liu Xing racked his brain and decided to think a bit out of the box. Instead of thinking as Liu Xing, he thought as William. He had read a lot of cultivation stories, and there was bound to be one that was about a giant and how to defeat it. Though, after a moment, he actually came up with inspiration from not a cultivation story, but one that Joni and Mamat had watched once upon a time. It was coincidentally about a giant tortoise that was rampaging around the world, and in this story, the main character killed it from the inside.

Thinking about it, Liu Xing's heartbeat quickened. Was this what Yang Suyin was trying to tell him? A tortoise was hard on the outside and soft on the inside? He couldn't confirm it since he had never actually killed a tortoise before.

Thinking a bit more, Liu Xing remembered Yang Suyin complaining about Lihuo's body, which was tough to cut. If he remembered correctly, before he sent potent qi to Yang Suyin, who had complained that his qi was almost out, Yang Suyin had actually been successful in cutting Lihuo's neck by himself. At that time, did he realize that Lihuo's body was tough outside but soft inside?

He couldn't confirm his answer with Yang Suyin, but even if he was wrong, this idea was actually worth pursuing. Since the giant was tough outside, perhaps it truly was soft inside. Moreover, the giant had already swallowed the meatball, and since the giant was still not breaking through or evolving, then he still had time to destroy the meatball.

Liu Xing took a deep breath. It would be hard, but with this revelation and new goal, at least he had a new plan.

The plan was simple. He just needed to enter the giant's stomach and wreck its insides.